Memo greatly expands the meaning of "imminence" to allow for targeted killings without evidence of an active terror plot

The US government can order the killing of American citizens even when there is no active intelligence accusing them of carrying out a specific terrorist attack, according to a confidential Justice Department legal memo obtained by NBC News.

The memo, or “white paper,” concludes that assassinations of American citizens are legal if the US government says they are “senior operational leaders” or al-Qaeda or “an associated force.” The Executive Branch can keep this information secret though, and no checks or balances from other branches of government are necessary.

The memo addresses long-standing questions about the Obama administration’s drone war that have been increasingly pronounced ever since a US drone strike in September 2011 killed US citizens and alleged al-Qaeda members Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, and weeks later Awlaki’s 16-year old son Abdulrahman al-Awlaki.

Without submitting the evidence to a court, without any oversight from Congress, and without even making it’s legal reasoning available to the public, the President can ignore the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, which says that no person shall “be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”

Standard rules of international law demand that an imminent threat of an immediate attack is required in order to legally initiate the use of force in self-defense. But the Obama administration has greatly expanded the meaning of the word “imminence” to allow for his drone war, taking place mainly in Pakistan and Yemen.

The memo refers to what it calls a “broader concept of imminence” than what has traditionally been required, like actual intelligence of an ongoing plot against the US.

“The condition that an operational leader present an ‘imminent’ threat of violent attack against the United States does not require the United States to have clear evidence that a specific attack on U.S. persons and interests will take place in the immediate future,” the memo states, contradicting conventional international law.

Instead, so long as an “informed, high-level” US official claims the targeted American has been “recently” involved in “activities” that pose a threat and “there is no evidence suggesting that he has renounced or abandoned such activities,” then the President can order his assassination. The memo does not define “recently” or “activities.”

Furthermore, the memo declares that these Executive Branch decisions will not be subject to any judicial oversight: “There exists no appropriate judicial forum to evaluate these constitutional considerations.”

“This is a chilling document,” said Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director of the ACLU. “Basically, it argues that the government has the right to carry out the extrajudicial killing of an American citizen…It recognizes some limits on the authority it sets out, but the limits are elastic and vaguely defined, and it’s easy to see how they could be manipulated.”

In particular, Jaffer said, the memo “redefines the word imminence in a way that deprives the word of its ordinary meaning.”

The memo marks an extraordinary and unprecedented expansion of executive power and the “limits” it imposes on the use of that power are insubstantial. For example, it says that the targeted assassination of American citizens can only take place if US officials decide that capturing the suspect is not feasible. But feasibility is entirely defined and decided upon by unchecked US officials in secret.

Last month, a federal judge rejectedThe New York Times‘ bid to force the US government to disclose more information about its drone war, and specifically its legal justifications.

Although she threw out the case, US District Judge Colleen McMahon noted that such government disclosures could help the public understand the “vast and seemingly ever-growing exercise in which we have been engaged for well over a decade, at great cost in lives, treasure, and (at least in the minds of some) personal liberty.”

“I can find no way around the thicket of laws and precedents that effectively allow the executive branch of our government to proclaim as perfectly lawful certain actions that seem on their face incompatible with our Constitution and laws while keeping the reasons for their conclusion a secret,” she wrote.

“The Alice-in-Wonderland nature of this pronouncement is not lost on me,” McMahon said, referring to the nightmarish wonderland in which people are sentenced to death before a verdict from a jury is in.

And Crickets…. This article was posted 2 hours ago and there hasn't been one comment. Where is the outrage? The President give himself unchecked power to kill American citizens. What will it take for Americans to wake up?

The question that one asks one self is now with that standard of Imminence, can a person now claim an attack on the United States is acceptable because there is an immence that the United States is going to attack them.

That is the last straw for any person,.human being with any conscience left to him/her. We need to nonviolently confront this abomination by charging the white house with torches…Millions of us! Let us shut this whole odious monster down!

Our voting majority, they being the 51% most wealthy, to achieve greater stability for their excessive wealthy and to achieve more security while their brutal imperialism does plunder undeveloped nations, they put Obama into power.

So, either the 51% most impoverished must get organized — or the 20% most rebellious must get most deadly.

So what? The only right Americans care about is the right to own assault weapons.

Though it scarcely seemed possible, US lawyers have sunk to a new low. The abject sophists that wrote the cited memo (no doubt graduates of Ivy League law schools, like the abysmal Obama) would be right at home in a totalitarian state. And so they are.

I'm sure that this memo was leaked so that people would stop second guessing the current administrations killing of Awlaki's son. This is supposed to explain it all and excuse it all. The rest of the Memo regarding the future killings of any American they know will be ignored by the Main Stream Media and by the population at large. The only way to wake the people up would be a drone strike on the cast of Survivor in Caramoan.

To send the united states of mordor's military to another country to murder a 16 year old american kid by government decree is premeditated homicide and by any society in the world; IT IS A CRIME. We have no law now that is real. By coincidence i have called for jury duty next month. Am i supposed to be a good little obedient,compliant citizen and just do my duty? Is this my time to stand up and draw a line in the sand?

When the drones are slaughtering innocent children in your name
do you bother to get concerned even when on your knees on Sunday?
or do you just stick your head in the sand blindly support the troops & just not think about whose to blame
if you care i have list of their names and ages i could give you from the depths of an odious jingo game

Do your wonder if your joystick violence is really doing any good
or do you get the feeling that something is very wrong & your getting spun & fooled
how can you support exported terrorism when your sworn to defend against it
how can you donate freedom &democracy when its getting stolen from under you by E/O

Every bullet bought is a loaf of bread stolen from the belly of the hungry
& your self-praising charity checkbook fad doesn't seem to dent the starvation
if you spent 2.2 million everyday since Jesus was born
you would have spent what your nation purchased on the military just last year

Do you wonder why your schools don't have books & pencils
why your bridges are crumbling down & the roads are potholed like Swiss cheese
while your politicians live in mansions with 5-star chefs lapping at life-long luxury
then again today they announced another bone-cut to the needy, homeless and disabled

How could anyone with a shred of conscience bow before a flag without bending over with nausea
knowing underneath it the killing of the innocent is a weekly act in nations we are not at war with
that after a hit. the gang fires off another drone when medics & rescuers come to the scene of destruction
we've forgotten what we stand for by the very deeds we toe-tag and their is no rationalization

Now we know by special executive decree memo called a 'white paper'
the Nobel Peace prize holder president has the power to murder americans beyond the law
it is solely up to the president when it comes to life and death and it is all a hush-hush secret
change we can be deceived has shown the articulate sheep to be but a child-eating wolf

Anyone who murders children by drone and then jokes about it is a sociopath
a leader who becomes a serial killer justifies by secret edicts he wont share with his employers is a despot
expansion and consolidation of extreme power will one day target you and yours
For what goes on abroad in your name will backblow as it comes around to get you tomorrow

Just south of key west at Guantanamo every law, principle and value you hold dear is smashed
across the pond the most nefarious crimes are done in your name with your support
and yet at home you bury your head deep in the sand far from the massive contradiction
your heart bleeds for Newton yet when your troops do the exact same thing you raise a flag & a stiff arm

For what profits an empire when they can envelop the world and dominate it
yet in the process they loose their values, principles and in so doing their very soul
still atonement must be rectified somewhere at some time
and this is the dream that i dream someday will be;

For all the innocent children who've been the victim of the american military machine
i would gladly see each and everyone of them walk by in front of every war supporter and soldier
to deeply gaze into the eyes and say with conviction, question and horror;
Why did you murder me?

When the drones are slaughtering innocent children in your name
do you bother to get concerned even when on your knees on Sunday?
or do you just stick your head in the sand blindly support the troops & just not think about whose to blame
if you care i have list of their names and ages i could give you from the depths of an odious jingo game

Do your wonder if your joystick violence is really doing any good
or do you get the feeling that something is very wrong & your getting spun & fooled
how can you support exported terrorism when your sworn to defend against it
how can you donate freedom &democracy when its getting stolen from under you by E/O

Every bullet bought is a loaf of bread stolen from the belly of the hungry
& your self-praising charity checkbook fad doesn't seem to dent the starvation
if you spent 2.2 million everyday since Jesus was born
you would have spent what your nation purchased on the military just last year

Do you wonder why your schools don't have books & pencils
why your bridges are crumbling down & the roads are potholed like Swiss cheese
while your politicians live in mansions with 5-star chefs lapping at life-long luxury
then again today they announced another bone-cut to the needy, homeless and disabled

How could anyone with a shred of conscience bow before a flag without bending over with nausea
knowing underneath it the killing of the innocent is a weekly act in nations we are not at war with
that after a hit. the gang fires off another drone when medics & rescuers come to the scene of destruction
we've forgotten what we stand for by the very deeds we toe-tag and their is no rationalization

Now we know by special executive decree memo called a 'white paper'
the Nobel Peace prize holder president has the power to murder americans beyond the law
it is solely up to the president when it comes to life and death and it is all a hush-hush secret
change we can be deceived has shown the articulate sheep to be but a child-eating wolf

Anyone who murders children by drone and then jokes about it is a sociopath
a leader who becomes a serial killer justifies by secret edicts he wont share with his employers is a despot
expansion and consolidation of extreme power will one day target you and yours
For what goes on abroad in your name will backblow as it comes around to get you tomorrow

Just south of key west at Guantanamo every law, principle and value you hold dear is smashed
across the pond the most nefarious crimes are done in your name with your support
and yet at home you bury your head deep in the sand far from the massive contradiction
your heart bleeds for Newton yet when your troops do the exact same thing you raise a flag & a stiff arm

For what profits an empire when they can envelop the world and dominate it
yet in the process they loose their values, principles and in so doing their very soul
still atonement must be rectified somewhere at some time
and this is the dream that i dream someday will be;

For all the innocent children who've been the victim of the american military machine
i would gladly see each and everyone of them walk by in front of every war supporter and soldier
to deeply gaze into the eyes and say with conviction, question and horror;
Why did you murder me?

"Instead, so long as an “informed, high-level” US official claims the targeted American has been “recently” involved in “activities” that pose a threat and “there is no evidence suggesting that he has renounced or abandoned such activities,” then the President can order his assassination. The memo does not define “recently” or “activities.”

There's not much by the way of definition of "threat" either. Fascinating that there exists a recognition that despite the obvious fact that this policy contravenes international law and is unconstitutional, the courts are powerless to challenge or intervene.

I think that many Americans kind of like the idea of having a despotic ruler with seemingly god like powers to protecting them from the barbarian horde at the fringe of the empire. Making sure that the evil ones do not show up again and this time topple America with only the eraser side of a pencil.

The great thing about the Ten Commandments is that they are written in language that everyone can understand. THOU SHALL NOT KILL! Unfortunately, the rambling justifications of drone killing by the Department of Justice are written in nuanced language that even other lawyers don't understand. When government policy has to be justified by such mumbo-jumbo, you can be sure that it is wrong.